September 2009 Archives

Over the past month our AT&T 3G cellular coverage here in New York City has been horrendous and getting worse all the time.

1) Dropped calls despite full bars
2) Failed calls despite full bars
3) Spotty 3G coverage despite full bars

Something is not right here... maybe time to roll out that femtocell strategy in earnest AT&T, cause things are getting ugly. So ugly in fact, my girlfriend went out and purchased a cheap LG Verizon phone with a 2 year contract for her business calls since her iPhone reception was becoming too unreliable.


To be fair I would say that I only encounter issues 20% of the time, but I used to have no issues at all.

"Houston, AT&T has a problem"

Relevant links:
* It's time for a new iPhone PR strategy at AT&T
* AT&T reportedly nearing femtocell 'soft launch'

Beginning iPhone 3 Development by Dave Mark and Jeff LaMarche has a carefree, irreverent written style rarely seen in books this technical.  And while I often find it hard to read more than the first 75 pages of a technical book, referring to the rest of the chapters only as needed, Beginning iPhone 3 Development was easy to stick with and I can tell how the clear explanations and logical buildup to progressively more difficult concepts would be a easy to finish for anyone needing a real world, under the hood, hands on look at iPhone development.

I won't drone on here, but I will say I did appreciate the Author's choice to assume we are all smart, witty, hard studying students. That said, you will require some C and Objective C background if you plan to achieve anything significant on the iPhone, so don't expect miracles, but it a very good walk through the factory floor for those, like myself, who's Objective C always needs polish, but knows enough to read code and can follow along inquisitively, all the while piecing more of the puzzle together.

Of all the books I have on the iPhone and Objective C, this is the closest any of them have gotten me to feel like I was in an actual course and I most certainly felt that my iPhone Dev learning curve was starting to level out by the time I finished reading it.

Hope that helps the many students, like myself, who look at all the reading choices on iPhone development and wish someone would pop over their shoulder and say, "get that one".